We’ve arrived and survived without any scars, though not without quite a bit of jet lag, which is the reason I am posting this late (sorry!) I think the jet lag must be due to the fact that we didn’t consume a few drinks and participate in Karaoke, as I did the last time I was here (which left me with no jet lag at all!)
Things went smoothly at the airport. We pulled 30,000 yen from the ATM, picked up our rail passes at the JR office, and each bought a train ticket to get to the hostel. Transportation is equally awesome as it is confusing. You have many options, and they’re all very efficient. However, all the options lead to a lot of confusion. To get to our hostel, we had to take the Narita Express from the airport to the Aoto stop, then transfer to the Toei Asakusa line on the same platform that we got off. At least, these were the directions provided to us from our hostel. Well, we waited for this Toei line to come, but we never saw any trains that said said Toei, Asakusa, or combinations of. So, after waiting for about 30 minutes and seeing 3 of the same trains pass by multiple trains, I decided we should just get on one of the trains that looked like it stopped where we wanted. So we took a risk, but it all worked out. Anyway.
Yesterday was our first full day (yesterday being Saturday in Japan…right now, it’s about 11:00 am Sunday, Nov 30, where in Chicago it’s about 8:00 pm, Saturday, Nov 29) I familiarized Cally with the area around our hostel (an area I was familiar with from last year) and we walked to Senso-Ji (just down the block from our hostel). This is Senso-Ji and some random female who decided to smile at my camera 
. Senso-Ji is Tokyo’s oldest temple, constructed in 645 AD for Kannon, the Boddhisatva of Compassion. When you first enter the Torii (gate to the temple,) you pass through the gauntlet of stores selling all sorts of goods from crackers to swords.
Next stop was: Ueno park . I’ve blogged about this in the past, so feel free to check out the this post
Today’s Menu
Yoyogi Park – Japanese Elvises and Japanese Punk and Rock bands
Harajuku
Akihabara
Another update tonight!